(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a suspension stop for an automobile especially designed to be integrated into a telescopic Macpherson strut of a steering wheel of an automobile.
The invention applies to a suspension stop comprising a fixed upper cup designed to be associated to the body of the automobile, a rotating lower cup featuring a support for the suspension spring and rolling bodies positioned between said cups to permit them to rotate relatively.
(2) Prior Art
To prevent the lubricant in the bearing space from leaking and also the contamination of said space by external pollutants, the prior art discloses the use of seals comprising a flexible sealing element that is associated or integrated into one of the cups so that a friction contact is created with the other cup.
This embodiment has the particular disadvantage of inducing a friction torque during the relative rotation of the cups, which is detrimental to the use of the stop in the assembly of a steering wheel.
To overcome this problem, it has been proposed to replace the friction sealing elements by baffles formed in the free space between the cups. However, eliminating the friction contact is also detrimental to the reliability of the sealing function. Furthermore, the efforts to which the stop is subjected tend to deform the free space between the cups, which modifies the configuration of the baffles formed in a non-optimal condition as concerns the sealing.
Furthermore, due to the changes in the configuration due to the baffles and the friction contacts, the rotation torque is difficult to control in function of the deformations of the suspension stop.